Hi Everyone!

 Two weeks ago the topic of the meeting was exercise, and it struck me, as I led meeting after meeting, how few people seemed genuinely enamored of activity. Most members seemed resigned to it being a necessity, but few expressed a real enthusiasm towards it. This truly saddens me. 
 

It is not as though these feelings of apathy or dislike are foreign to me. Far from it. I spent the first 30 years of my life in utter loathing of activity. Except for being a folk dancer when I was young, which was not exercise in my book, I did absolutely nothing to benefit my physical health. I sat at the bottom of trails waiting for my friends who climbed them. I refused to put on a swimsuit and go into the water after a certain age, so embarrassed was I to be seen in such attire. I poo-poohed anyone and everyone who promoted activity, including Richard Simmons, Jack Lalanne, and all those others who paved the way for us to begin thinking about our bodies as instruments we could tune and play with skill and enjoyment.

So how did it change? Well I have to thank a former roommate, who drug me kicking and screaming to a dance aerobics class in our neighborhood in San Francisco. Taught by professional dancers leading wonderful routines to music I liked, it got me got hooked. It helped that it was 2 blocks down the street. I was so lazy in those days, had it been further I likely would have left it behind. But what struck me, after doing this 4, 5 ,6 days a week for years, was that I enjoyed it because I had been dancing in my younger years, and it was an activity that suited me.

 Then I had a boyfriend who got me into a gym, so I could build some muscle (aerobics is wonderful for cardio strength, but does little for your muscle tone), and then another friend who got me into bicycling, and some great friends who turned me onto swing dancing...and, well, here I am...an exercise junkie. Really. I cannot stand it when I go a day without doing SOMETHING!

So I know there are many of you reading this who are saying, "well, yeah...you were 30. I am 50 (or 60 or 70 or older), so I am not going out and starting an aerobics class, some dance class, or God-forbid, get on a bike. Great excuse. I am serious. There are classes for all age levels. If you enjoyed dancing when you were younger maybe this is a pathway to a stronger healthier body. If you rode a bike when you were younger who says you cannot get on one now and pick areas to ride which feel safe to you. If you think gyms are for 20-somethinged-perfect-bodies think again. I had a conversation a few years ago with a man in his 80's in my gym. He was on a nautilus machine, using it at the highest weight (about 100 lbs heavier than I was using on the same machine). I commented that he had to have been working out his whole life. He laughed and said he remarried about 5 years prior, and his wife was an exerciser so he had only joined a gym for the first time 3 years ago!! Ask Janice, who works at the Santa Rosa meetings with me how old she is (I won't give it away, Janice...) and how avid a bicyclist she is.

Age is not a barrier. Strength is not a barrier. Illness, injury and the like are not barriers. There is one thing, and one thing alone which keeps us from embracing activity...attitude.

Those of you who are not doing anything, I implore you to get moving. Look at older people who have been sedentary their whole lives and ask yourself if that is who you want to be. And if you are a person who is active when it suits you, when you know you "have" to, maybe find something which really seems like it could be fun...hula hoop? trampoline? jump rope? yoga? horseback riding? 

If one person reading this gets motivated enough to get off the couch and into an activity which gets them hooked I will have done my job. Hope to see you all out there!!